Many modern integrated circuits use multilayered stacks of conductive material (often termed "runners") to interconnect individual transistors. For example, referring to FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes a substrate which is a dielectric, illustratively an oxide of silicon. Reference numeral 13 denotes a multilayered patterned conductor. Illustratively, reference numeral 15 may denote patterned titanium, while reference 17 may denote patterned titanium nitride, TiN. Reference 19 denotes patterned aluminum which may, illustratively, also contain predetermined amounts of copper and or silicon. Reference 21 may denote patterned TiN.
Those involved in the development of integrated circuits have noticed that corrosion of multilayered conductors 13 is a serious problem which affects integrated circuit reliability.